Thursday, June 05, 2008 Flooded sitios’ folk blame bry. execs for ordeal By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FAMILIES living in a flooded sitio in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City blamed barangay officials for their situation, saying that the officials have not done anything about their complaints.
Carrying their children who suffer from skin diseases, mothers in the community lamented yesterday that if it weren’t for the news reports on their ordeal, the City Health Department would not have attended to them and the barangay hall would not have sent help.
Some 30 houses in Sitios Mangga and delos Reyes are partially submerged in dirty floodwater and garbage, and residents have to bear with the stench there.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday ordered the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) to pump the floodwater from the property of businessman Vincent Go, which partially submerged the makeshift houses of illegal occupants there.
Osmeña said this will be the immediate solution to the problem until Go arrives next week and starts work on the needed drainage in his property.
Drainage
But because Go is still out of the country and the DEPW could not get his consent to enter his property, Assistant City Engineer Kenneth Enriquez said they cannot use the heavy equipment that is capable of draining the pond at once.
Instead of using the sewer inductor machine, which can take out the water faster, Enriquez said they can only use a water pump until Go arrives. It will take several days to completely drain the pond, she said.
Residents of Sitios Mangga and delos Reyes welcomed DEPW’s move, saying they are happy to be rid of the floodwater, even if it will just be temporary.
What City Hall needs to do, they said, is to put up a drainage system so the floodwater can flow out to the sea, which will permanently address the flooding problem.
During rainy days, the floodwater would enter their huts, which have bamboo slits as flooring.
Dory Ortega and her neighbors said the flooding started when Go built a sea wall on his reclaimed property without a drainage, causing the water flowing from other barangays to get stuck in the area.
Mambaling Barangay Captain Rodolfo Estella said they can only do so much to address the flooding problem because they don’t have the equipment to clear the property.
Yesterday, he and other officials went to the area to supervise the cleanup, which he said the barangay has been doing regularly.
Barangay health workers and City Health Department personnel also visited the residents to check on their condition.
“How about the cleanup we did and the visits made by the barangay health workers are these not our action? We don’t have the equipment so mag-agad ta sa City Hall. Unsay gusto nila, ang barangay kapitan musuyop sa tubig?” Estella said.
He explained that he has long requested help from City Hall and has sent several letters to city officials informing them of the problem but no action was made until yesterday.
Corazon Gemal, 43, also appealed to the mayor for a relocation site so they can vacate the private property.
When the Mambaling access road to the South Road Properties (SRP) was opened in 2006, illegal occupants of the property used for the access road were given P10,000 per family as disturbance fee for their relocation.
The property was owned by Vincent Go’s family and donated it to the City, which Osmeña said helped the City save P20 million.
Gemal complained that the flooding poses danger to the residents, especially to children who often get sick because of the unsanitary environment.
Her two-year-old son, the youngest of six children, almost died last December when he fell from the door of their hut and drowned in the pond.
“Had the child not been rushed to the hospital, he would have died,” she said in Bisaya. (LCR)
